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Sunday, October 31, 2010

My continual interest in the Silver Star Mountain photographs keeps bringing interesting tidbits of information my way. This time, the info is rather light-hearted and timely for the Halloween season. The Washington Trails Association has included the Silver Star Mountain hike in its list of "Haunted Hikes" of Washington State.

Silver Star Mountain

There have been many sightings of Bigfoot around Silver Star. And aren't they always a blur? Photo by Cheri Higman.

Due to the many purported sightings of Sasquatch near Mount Saint Helens and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, our famous resident ape likely lives in Washington's South Cascades - if it exists at all. In November 2005, a hiker photographed what he believed to be a Sasquatch on Silver Star Mountain. It could be just a hiker, but maybe not... In the meantime, we ran into another unconfirmed Bigfoot that we've posted here.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Checking my voice mail tonight, I found that Thom Powell left a message on my phone. Apparently, his wife and neighbors notified him about a movie premiere tonight at a local movie theater. The project was entitled, "Evidence of the Sasquatch," and was produced by 1/4 Orange. Thom called to invite me to see the flick with him. I hadn't seen Thom in a month or two, so I readily obliged. However, the showtime was in only eight minutes, so I rushed to Hollywood (that's the name of a district in Portland, OR) and met him for the showing.

Thom and I both pondered what the movie could possibly be about. We both figured that if neither of us had heard about it by now, it probably wasn't actually "evidence." Our best guess was that it was most likely a film school project by a local student.

The film is probably best summarized as a Blaire-Witch-meets-bigfoot sort of thing: lots of shaky camera work combined with a rampaging bigfoot in Mt. Hood National Forest. I know that movie well... I have often lived it in my head on many dark, lonely nights alone in the woods. It wasn't anything I hadn't feared/fantasized about before, and in general was good, fun, entertaining stuff.

Thom Powell posing with a movie poster.

On the way out, Thom obtained a movie poster, and I briefly met one of the filmmakers and gave him my contact information saying, "If you want to know about the real thing, here's my card."

The film showed a bigfoot that was "OK" on the reality scale. There were some things I liked about the depiction, and some that were the things that movies are made of... It had no hair on the face, but lots of hair everywhere else. It killed 3 or 4 folks during the 85 (or so) minutes of horror schlock. The wood knocks and the nighttime whoops/screams were pretty good. Heavy footfalls were featured several times throughout the film. Not bad, but very Hollywood (in more ways than one).

Honestly, the whole thing made me really want to go to the woods.

After the flick, I made a phone call to Guy Edwards of Bigfoot Lunch Club fame to fill him in on the movie. He invited Thom and I to a watering hole near his house for a beverage and some squatch-talking. Interesting tidbits regarding book releases, possible bigfoot footage, and other gossip was eagerly indulged in, and enjoyed by all. I love hanging with bigfooters talking about what's going on. There' always so much more than most people realize!

After an enjoyable couple of hours pretending that I don't have to work tomorrow, I finally made my way home. Now, I better go to bed; I have to work in the morning. Welcome to a snapshot of my life.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Not long ago, an eyewitness report from the Philippines was related to me by the witness' husband, and later posted on this blog. This has now brought other witnesses forth with their stories about seeing kapres (bigfoots?) on other occasions.

One man knew his wife had seen a kapre as a little girl back in 1985. He eventually coaxed her to meticulously describe what she saw. The man then found a talented and well-known bigfoot artist to whip up a couple renditions of what his wife saw.

The full account of the sighting can be read on the blog The Adventures of Imonacan. For my part, I wanted to share this interesting international sighting, as well as this amazing art, with my readers.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Most readers of this blog know of my undying support for Jane Goodall. I have written numerous blogs entries about her, so go ahead and use the "search this blog" function on the right hand sidebar and read them.

For Cliff - Together we can reveal
the secrets still out there.
- Jane Goodall

She is again rearing her lovely head on this blog because she has been getting some media attention. We are all celebrating her 50th anniversary of when Jane first started her field research in Gombe National Park in Eastern Africa.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Last April, I was invited out to film an episode of "Strange Days with Bob Saget" on the north side of the Olympic Peninsula. Many of my favorite bigfooting buddies were there, which was enough reason to go in itself, but how could I pass up the chance to bigfoot with Bob Saget?

Bob Saget, the Heryford Cast, and Cliff Barackman

No news came my way about the series while Mr. Saget and the crew were finishing up filming the other episodes. However, this past week I finally got a little bit of info from the A&E Channel website. Knowing the ridiculousness that went down, I don't know if this is something that should be advertised or not, but there you go.

I don't know if the bigfoot episode will be among the first to air, but I was told that the production company thought it was hilarious. Maybe they'll want it for their vanguard episode?

By the way, Mr. Saget is not what you'd expect from his foul-mouthed stand up routine. He was kind, respectful, and polite the entire time, eagerly listening to bigfoot accounts and asking intelligent and insightful questions. He even took several breaks a day just to call his daughter in New York. He's a genuinely nice guy, so watch the show.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

As you probably know, the McKenzie River Footage surfaced this past August. This footage showed what appeared to be a large, dark, upright figure clearly walking on two legs with swinging arms. Not knowing what was depicted in the video, a friend of the videographer reported the film to the BFRO.

As luck would have it, when the report came in I happened to be in Pennsylvania on a bigfooting trip with BFRO founder, Matt Moneymaker. Matt asked if I'd like to look into it for him.

On September 11, 2010, I went down to the McKenzie River with some friends to do my version of an on-site investigation. My conclusions have been posted elsewhere on this blog, but I thought you might enjoy watching some video footage from that day.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

For the fourth year running, Mike Rugg of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum is hosting a bigfoot gathering in the town of Felton, CA. This year, the speaker line-up will consist of Scott McClean, Bart Cutino, and Robert Leiterman. Mike Rugg will also give an overview of his research in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Besides the speakers, there will be raffles, barbecues, meet and greets, eyewitnesses, round table discussions, and more. If you're a researcher anywhere within driving distance, this will be a great opportunity to network with others.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

It's good to keep things in perspective. Bigfoot isn't the most important thing in the world, just one of the most interesting.

Along the same lines of thought, Dr. Grover Krantz commented on the long-term reaction to the eventual discovery of the species in his must-read book, Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence. In fact, he closes the book with these words:

Sunday, October 10, 2010

In the isolated Muller Range of southern Papua New Guinea, an expedition discovered approximately 200 species new to science in just two months. An amazing cryptozoological feat, and one to show how much is still to be learned about our amazing world.

Friday, October 8, 2010

You may have noticed the new addition of a really great looking logo at the top of this blog. This piece of art was created by a talented man named Art Schmitz of Bluewing Graphics.

In the right-hand margin of this blog, there's a link through which one can donate to North American Bigfoot. Art contacted me this past year and offered his services as a donation to my cause. I like the way this guy thinks. Donations are not necessarily money, after all.

Over the next few months we casually collaborated with each other as our schedules allowed. One of several results of this collaboration is the banner logo you see above. I think it's great.

If you like Art's work, and you're looking for something that he might be able to help you with in the realm of graphic arts, please let me know and I'll get you in touch with him right away.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Bengal, the Idaho State University newspaper, recently posted an article featuring Dr. Meldrum. I always appreciate Dr. Meldrum's focus on the data supporting the bigfoot hypothesis. Read on, and enjoy.

In search of Bigfoot
By Aaron Dean
Staff Writer

Dr. Jeffery Meldrum said he doesn't take on faith that Sasquatch is real but based on the body of evidence he has examined, he does think the creature exists.

Meldrum is an Associate Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology in the biology department at Idaho State University.

Meldrum said he started researching Sasquatch 14 years ago when he found a fresh footprint in southeastern Washington. "That was what set the hook as far as embarking on a more systematic and focused consideration of the question from a research perspective."

He has been featured on the History Channel, the SyFy Channel andNational Public Radio.

Meldrum also said the case of Sasquatch is particularly interesting to him because his background is in the evolution of human locomotion.

He said, "The proposition of another biped – perhaps an early hominid or an ape – that had evolved the same bipedal adaptation as humans is an intriguing question.

"I was already familiar with footprint evidence for early humans walking, so I recognized
features and possibilities attributed to Sasquatch.

"I thought I could make a significant contribution to the resolution to this issue from the perspective of systematic evaluation of footprint evidence because I'm very familiar with that type of data.

"So I started collecting as many examples of the footprints as I could."

Meldrum said his collection currently has over 200 footprint casts and they are working with the Idaho Virtualization Laboratory to create 3D models so other researchers will have access to them.

Meldrum also said he's traveled around the world to study Sasquatch.

He said one of his more interesting travels was for a documentary for the History Channel to the Hubei province in China.

He said China has legends of a creature called the Yerin, which translates into "wild man" and has a similar description to Sasquatch.

He said they met with a park ranger who claimed to have seen a Yerin.

Meldrum said, "The ranger was patrolling the park and spied at several hundred yards, a reddish brown hair covered figure sprawled on a boulder in the sun in the morning hours.

"The ranger called out to it, it sat up, looked at him and instead of it being a long snouted bear it was a flat faced man-like figure that got up and walked into the forest.

"The ranger went after it and tracked it some distance to a stream where it left nice tracks in the mud.

"He went to get the materials and returned to make a cast of the feet."

Meldrum said, "One of the objectives of the trip was to examine these casts.

He said the ranger opened up a suitcase and unwrapped the casts.

"I was stunned," Meldrum stated, "because these footprints were virtually identical to the examples I have here in my laboratory."

Meldrum also said the park ranger had no frame of reference as to what these footprints would look like making a hoax unlikely.

Meldrum said he is submitting an abstract to the American Association of Physical Anthropology meeting in the Spring about the trip.

As far as research here in the U.S., Meldrum said they are working on training search and recovery dogs to track Sasquatch.

He said one of the biggest criticisms of Sasquatch is there is no body, and the only way to get a body would be to track one down and kill it or for someone to stumble upon a body.

"Given their intelligence, this is probably going to be a very unlikely scenario," Meldrum said.

"The next best thing would be to have a trace of that organism with DNA, and that would come from hair or feces," he continued.

Meldrum said the dogs are generally used to identify humans and human remains, but can be trained to identify almost anything.

He said they had one of these dogs check what was suspected being Sasquatch feces, based on circumstantial evidence.

Meldrum said, "They get wind of this feces which would either be from bear or Sasquatch, because it was filled with black ants, and the dogs had a fear response to it.

"This is a very unusual response because those same dogs would walk by bear feces with no response."

"This enthused one of the handlers, and she has agreed to train a dog to great ape hair and tissue with the presumption that Sasquatch falls close to the variation of gorillas, chimps and apes," Meldrum continued.

"Once we have a dog that is at hand, if fresh footprints are found within about 12 hours, we can take the dogs to the site and imprint them with the scent, presuming the tracks are authentic."

Meldrum said, "I'm not just about collecting footprints; we're also approaching this as a question of wildlife biology. What is this creature's role in the biological community?"

Monday, October 4, 2010

Dr. John Bindernagel has published a new sasquatch book. His first book, North America's Great Ape: the Sasquatch was an excellent examination of the parallels between great ape behavior and the observed behaviors of sasquatches. This new book is more about the discovery process itself. Here's what Beachcomber books has to say about Dr. Bindernagel's new book.

In The Discovery of the Sasquatch, biologist John Bindernagel reconsiders much of the prevailing knowledge regarding the sasquatch. Illustrating evidence which contradicts the widely held perception of the sasquatch as merely a cultural phenomenon—a myth, hallucination, imaginary being, misidentified bear, or hoax—he explains why criteria such as testability, consistency, predictive power, and simplicity actually support an alternative hypothesis: the sasquatch as an extant mammal.

This is a book about the sasquatch, but it is more specifically about the discovery process. It examines scientific and social factors that can prevent discoveries from being recognized, particularly when a discovery claim is perceived as unlikely, premature, or without a theoretical basis. Bindernagel examines how these factors have affected our perceptions of the sasquatch, and how they may have influenced scientific attitudes toward this controversial subject. By reconciling the social and scientific components of discovery, he shows how the various forms of evidence for the sasquatch can be viewed in the context of a prolonged discovery process. In doing so, he provides a bold new perspective explaining the need to reconsider—and perhaps challenge—long-standing prevailing knowledge about the sasquatch.

The book is now available from Beachcomber Books. Click this link to get your copy.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

I recently received this letter from the Union Creek Resort in regards to a bigfoot event they are holding next weekend. It sounds like a small-town celebration with bigfoots being the central theme. I'd love to see any photos or hear first-hand accounts of this affair. If you can make it to this event, drop me an email to tell me how it went at NorthAmericanBigfoot@gmail.com.

September 28, 2010

RE: Great Union Creek Resort Bigfoot Search on October 9th

Dear Bigfoot Enthusiast,

We wanted to drop you a note to let you know about our upcoming Great Union Creek Resort Bigfoot Search Event on October 9th. We are one of the recognized HOTSPOTS for Bigfoot sightings and are rapidly coming up to the time of year when many of our sightings normally occur. This is also when all of the local enthusiasts get together to share their experiences and encounters with the local Bipeds. We will also have the Annual Bigfoot games where competitors compete for the Bigfoot trophy. You can also experience the Bigfoot Burger and Sasquatch Shake from our Chuckwagon and Ice Cream Shop. We would welcome experts such as yourself to share the facts concerning Bigfoot. If you need lodging please call us at the number below for reservations. Please make reservations early as this is a very popular event.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to call us toll free at 866-560-3565.

Friday, October 1, 2010

The photographs purportedly showing a sasquatch on the top of Silver Star Mountain in southern Washington State have been weighing heavily on my mind this past year. I have blogged about them once or twice, and they were the subject of my presentation at the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium (OSS) this past June.

The third of three photos possibly showing a sasquatch on
Silver Star Mountain. Photo courtesy of Randee Chase.

The photographs were taken on November 17, 2005 by an electrician named Randee Chase. I met Randee in 2008 and soon thereafter made a day trip to the summit of Silver Star together to take measurements at the site. On that trip, I intended to take some comparison photographs with a subject of a known height standing in the same location as the purported sasquatch. My hopes were dashed due to a grey, drizzly day. One couldn't even see the hilltop where the critter was standing, so I only managed to walk away with some very rough GPS measurements of distances. I didn't know at the time that these measurements would start a journey that is still to be finished as of this writing.

Sometime over the course of the next year, Bill Munns came onto the bigfoot scene. After reading through his work on the Patterson/Gimlin Film, I because both impressed at his diligence and intrigued by his methods. It soon occurred to me that this same optics formula could be applied to the Silver Star photos to determine the height of the figure.

The simple optics formula that can be used to determine
a subject's height in a photograph.

I made another attempt to obtain measurements at the summit of Silver Star shortly before my presentation at the OSS, but it too was largely thwarted by inclement weather. Still, I walked away with more measurements obtained with my GPS units, both of which are accurate to within three meters.

Using these slightly fuzzy measurements, I found that the figure on Silver Star stood somewhere around seven feet, eight inches tall. I stated my methodologies and reasoning in my OSS presentation, along with a plea to the bigfooting community to get out there and do some real amateur science using whatever means one has at his/her disposal.

A member of the audience that day took my plea to heart and approached me offering his assistance as a professional statistician. Jumping at the chance to collaborate with someone who actually enjoys doing the kind of math necessary for these nerdy pursuits, he and I have been working closely together over the last three months to refine my data.

Last weekend, I had another opportunity to scale the summit of Silver Star Mountain along with the witness, and several other bigfoot investigators. This time, the weather was perfect. Using some newly purchased equipment, more accurate measurements have been obtained dropping the margin of error from the previously mentioned three meters down to half a meter. Angular separation measurements have been obtained to verify the focal length of the photographs. Comparison photos of a subject of known height standing in the same spot have been taken using the same camera that took the original photos. Photographs taken with the camera will be used to calibrate the camera, comparing the calculated focal length to the manufacturer's specifications.

Clearly, I have a lot of work to do. It will be a while until I can get some results (mostly due to time constraints), but when I get them I will certainly share them with the good readers of this blog. Keep checking back for updates on these excellent photos.

In the meantime, here are some photos from that day. Enjoy!

Randee Chase and Cliff Barackman at

the summit of Silver Star Mountain.

The view of where Randee took the photos

from the perspective of the subject.

Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier.

The rocks from where Randee took the photos.

Tyler Bounds standing at the subject's location.
This photo was taken with the same camera used
for the original photos.